Archerfish.org

Gold and Silver to China
China gained two medals at today’s 25m Pistol Women at the 2009 ISSF World Cup stage in all events in Munich, Germany. The Asian country keeps on surprising the shooting experts, presenting young shooters who win world level competitions in spite of their lack of experience.

The 22-year old pistol shooter YUAN Jing, who had shot a fifth place at the first ISSF World Cup sage of the year in Chanwon (KOR), finished today’s match in first winning the first medal of her international career.

The young Chinese shooter overtook with ease the qualification leader, the home shooter Munkhbayar Dorjusuren of Germany, claiming Gold with a total score of 793.0 (588+205.0) points.

Yuan was followed in second by her 21-year old teammate ZHAO Xu, winner of the second World Cup stage of the 2009 season in Beijing. The young athlete shot the Silver medal climbing form the eighth place on the start list thanks to an impressive final of 207.0 points, for a total score of 789.0 (582+207.0) points.

Bronze to Beijing’s Olympic medallist Dorjsuren
The German shooter Munkhbayar DORJSUREN, 39-year old, did not shoot her best match, today. She had entered the final round in first place with a qualification score of 589.0 points, taking advantage of her home range, but she did not held the leadership further then the first final series.
Her slight one-point head start did not place her in a safe position, and she slid down in second and then in third place by scoring two disappointing final series.

Dorjsuren eventually landed in third place and grabbed Bronze with a total score of 788.4 (589+199.4) points

Spain’s Sonia FRANQUET, 28-year old, finished in fourth place with a total score of 786.6 (583+203.6) points, shooting her best world cup placement ever in this shooting event. Her best placement, so far, had been a sixth place at the 2005 ISSF World Cup stage in Fort Benning, USA.

The third Chinese finalist, WU Jan, 30-year old, Gold medallist of the 2009 ISSF World Cup in Changwon, finished in fifth place with 785.9 (584+201.9) points. She was followed by the 1988 Olympic Champion and 2008 Olympic medallist Nino SALUKVADZE of Georgia, who closed the round in sixth place with 785.6 (582+203.6) points.

The Russian shooter Vladimir GONTCHAROV won today’s 50m Pistol Men event thanks to a great final round. The Russian shooter climbed the scoreboard all the way from the fifth place, shooting Gold with a total score of 666.5 (567+99.5) points. Gontcharov had won his last ISSF world cup medal at the 2004 ISSF world cup stage in Milan, and said to be satisfied to be back on a world-level podium in this event after five years.

Gontcharov had started with a qualification score of 567 points, seven points behind the qualification’s leader Damir MIKEC of Serbia.

Mikec, 25-year old, had indeed started today’s 50m Pistol men final in the lead, with a qualification score of 574 points, and a 6-point head start on the other finalists. The unlucky Serbian athlete wasted his advantage on his second competition shot, when he fired a spine-chilling 5.9 shot jeopardizing his leadership, and giving space to Gontcharov’s comeback.

“The pressure was very high – explained Mikec after the award ceremony – I was standing there in first position, I found a good sight, I aimed, but suddenly my arm swerved to the right… and I shot that 5.9. It has been a big mistake, but I am happy I am on the podium!”

Mikec finished in second claiming Silver with 666.1 (574+92.1) points (“My first medal! This is just my starting point!”). The Serbian shooter had never won a world cup medal before. He had entered his first final round at the beginning of the 2009 season, at the ISSF World Cup in Beijing, where he had finished in eighth place.

Following Mikec, Rashid YUNUSMETOV of Kazakhstan, 29-year old, the winner of this year’s ISSF world cup stage in Beijing, fought right to the last shot to get a spot on the podium. The Kazakh athlete grabbed Bronze at the last shot, finishing on the podium with a total score of 664.9 points.

The winner of the 2006 and 2007 editions of the ISSF world cup stage in Munich, Portugal’s Joao COSTA, finished in fourth place with 663.4 points, followed by the first time participant Lukas GRUNDER of Switzerland, who placed in fifth with a score of 662.9 points.

Following them, the winner of the 2008 edition of the ISSF World Cup in Munich, the 33-year old Japanese shooter MATSUDA Tomoyuki, won a shoot-off for the seventh place against Belarus Yury DAUHAPOLAU, who closed his match in eighth place.

Israel’s Rikhter shot Gold
Sergey RIKHTER of Israel, 20 year-old, surprised everybody by walking into today’s 10m Air Rifle final round with an outstanding qualification score of 599 points, only one point far from the world record. The Israeli shooter had never made into an ISSF world cup final round before, and his best placement so far had been a 17th place at the last ISSF World Cup in Beijing.

Rikhter turned out to be a strong competitor during the final round. The young shooter tried to manage his two-point head start on the followers, but the Hungarian champion Peter Sidi came closer to him shot after shot.  The close neck and neck finished in favour of the young Rikhter, who eventually won his first world cup gold medal with 701.7 points, and a slight margin of 2 tenths of a point on the following Sidi. “This is exciting, I did not expect to finish on the highest step of the podium: this is my fourht time in an international competition!” Rikhter said right after the final match.

104.5 points brought Silver to Peter Sidi.
Hungary’s Peter SIDI performed one of his best matches today, climbing the scoreboard thanks to great shots such as a 10.9 he fired on his fifth final-shot. “I have fired an outstanding final round, 104.5 points! Unfortunately it has not been enough to reach the Gold medal… I have been a little bit unlucky, I missed it by 2 tenths of a point!”

The Hungarian athlete overtook Belarus’ Bubnovic and Norway’s Hansen to move up in second place, and fought right to the last shot to reach Israel’s Rikhter. His efforts resulted in an extreme final of 104.5 points, so that Sidi claimed Silver with a total score of 701.5 (597+104.5) points.

Olympic Silver medallist Zhu grabbed Bronze:
Bronze went to Beijing’s Olympic Silver medallist ZHU Qinan of China, who struggled to get a spot on the podium. Starting in sixth position, he found his best shots in the second half of the match climbing up to the third place. The Chinese champion had a chance to move up in second place, but his last shot of 9.4 points pushed him in third where he eventually closed the round with a total score of 700.6 points (597+103.6 points)

“I keep on searching my best mood, after the Games. The Olympic final of Beijing dried me out, and I am still struggling with finals. Today’s match has been ok, at least the first nine competition shot were in the ten-ring” Said Zhu, who had walked into the last Games as the title-holder, and came out of Beijing’s final hall with a Silver around his neck.

Vitaly BUBNOVICH of Belarus finished in fourth place with a total score of 700.3 points. A shot in the ninth ring, an unlucky 9.4 he fired on his fourth competition shot, turned out to be a fatal mistake that pushed him out of the podium.

Next Finals:
The 10m Air Rifle Women final round will take place at 15.30 Munich time (GMT/UTC+2), this afternoon.

Follow the match on issf-sport.org!

Next to the decisions about the 2010 and 2011 World Cup stages locations, it was decided that there will be no changes in the Double Trap men event during this Olympic cycle. No doping-related problems emerged form the meetings, and the closer collaboration between ISSF and WADA (the World Anti Doping Association) was highlighted. Two member federations, Brunei and Uganda, have been suspended.

2010 Youth Olympic Games
The first edition of the Youth Olympic Games will take place in Singapore form the 14 through the 26 of August 2010. ISSF shooting sport competitions (Air Rifle and Air Pistol Men and Women) will take place from the 21 to the 26th of August. Mr. Max Muenchel (GER) has been designated as ISSF Technical delegate for the competition, while Mr. Carlos Rene Silva Monterroso (GUA) will be the Chairman of the Jury of Appeal.

2010 ISSF General Assembly
The 2010 ISSF General Assembly will take place in concomitance with the ISSF World Championship in all events. The Assembly will take place the 28th and the 29th of August at the Hilton Park Hotel of Munich.

2010 World Championships
ISSF Administrative Council received a complete report about the preparation of the 2010 World Championships by the Secretary General of the German Shooting Federation, Mr. Jörg Brokamp. The opening ceremony of the World Championships will take place in Marien Platz, in front of the town all, and Germany’s Minister of Interiors will visit the competition. For the first time, World Championship spectators’ tickets will be sold by a professional ticketing company.
The ISSF President Mr. Olegario Vàzquez Raña visited the 1972 Olympic Shooting range that has been renewed to host the World Championships and commented: “This is a beautiful sport venue, a leading shooting range in the world. The next World Championships is probably going to be one of the best we have ever had!”

2012 Olympic Games
The 2012 Olympic shooting venue will be set at Woolwich Arsenal in London. The venue will be a temporary construction, which will be used only for the 2012 Olympic Games.